A certain number of cocks, say sixteen, are pitted together; the
eight victors are then pitted, then the four, and last of all the two;
and the winner is victor of the battle royal. Metaphorically, the term
is applied to chess, etc.

Battle scenes

Le Clerc could arrange on a small piece of paper not larger than
one's hand an army of 20,000 men.

The Battle-painter

or Delle Battaglie. (See Michael Angelo.)

Battle of the Books

A satire, by Dean Swift, on the contention among literary men
whether ancient or modern authors were the better. In the battle the
ancient books fight against the modern books in St. James's Library.

Battle of the Giants

i.e. the battle of Marignan (Ma-rin-yan') in 1515, when
Francois I. won a complete victory over 12,000 Swiss, allies of the
Milanese.

Battle of the Herrings

in 1429. A sortie made by the men of Orléns, during the siege of
their city, to intercept a supply of salt herrings sent to the
besiegers.

Battle of the Moat

A skirmish or battle between Mahomet and Abu Sofian (chief of the
Koreishites) before Medina; so called because the “prophet” had a moat
dug before the city to keep off the invaders; and in the moat much of
the fighting took place.

Battle of the Standard

in 1138, when the English overthrew the Scotch, at Northallerton,
in Yorkshire. The standard was a high crucifix borne by the English on
a wagon.

Battle of the Spurs

(1302), in which the allied citizens of Ghent and Bruges won a
famous victory over the chivalry of France under the walls of Courtray.
After the battle more than 700 gilt spurs (worn by French nobles) were
gathered from the field.

In English history the Battle of Guinegate (1513) is so called, “because the French spurred their horses to flight, almost as
soon as they came in sight of the English troops.”

A close battle

A naval fight at “close quarters”, in which opposing ships engage
each other side by side. A line of battle. The position of
troops drawn up in battle array. At sea, the arrangement formed by
ships in a naval engagement. A line-of-battle ship is a ship fit to
take part in a main attack. Frigates do not join in a general
engagement.

A pitched battle

A battle which has been planned, and the ground pitched on or
chosen beforehand, by both sides.

Half the battle

Half determines the battle. Thus, “The first stroke is half the battle,” that is, the way in which the battle is begun half determines what the end will be.

Trial by battle

The submission of a legal suit to a combat between the litigants,
under the notion that God would defend the right. It was legal in
England till the nineteenth century.

Wager of Battle

One of the forms of ordeal or appeal to the judgment of God, in the
old Norman courts of the kingdom. It consisted of a personal combat
between the plaintiff and the defendant, in the presence of the court
itself. Abolished by 59 Geo. III. c. 46.

Battle of the Frogs and Mice

(The). [See Batrachomyomachia. ]

Battle of the Kegs

(The). A mockheroic by Francis Hopkinson (1738-1791).
In the War of Independence certain machines, in the form of kegs,
charged with gunpowder, were sent down the river to annoy the British
at Philadelphia. When the British found out the nature of these
machines, they waged relentless war with everything they saw floating
about the river.

Battle of the Poets

(The). A satirical poem by John [Sheffield], Duke of
Buckingham, in which all the versifiers of the time are brought into
the field (1725).

Battle of the Whips

The Scythian slaves once rose in rebellion against their
masters, and many a bloody encounter followed. At length, one of the
Scythian masters said to his followers: Let us throw away our spears
and swords, and fight in future with whips. We get killed by the former
weapons and weakened. So in the next encounter they armed themselves
with whips, and immediately the slaves saw the whips, remembering
former scourgings, they turned tail and were no more trouble.

Battle

(Sarah), who considered whist the business of life and
literature one of the relaxations. When a young gentleman, of a
literary turn, said to her he had no objection to unbend his mind for a
little time by taking a hand with her, Sarah was indignant, and
declared it worse than sacrilege to speak thus of her noble occupation.
Whist “was her life business; her duty; the thing she came into the
world to do, and she did it. She unbent her mind afterwards over a
book.” (C. Lamb: Elia.)